Static Spawning

Now take everything I said about Spawning in the lesson on Symmetry
and put them aside for a moment. I want to talk about depth that is
added through Static Spawning. And then I want to talk about depth that
is added through Dynamic Spawning. I want to bring both of these to your
attention so that you are aware of both of them and so that you can
decide for yourself what you wish to implement on your maps.

Rewarding Skilled Pushes

As I mentioned in the lesson on Symmetry, Static Spawning – teams
spawning only on their side of the map – is only required for those Game
Types that have objective goals tied to team bases. But there is a case
for including it in most other Game Types.

Dynamic Spawning – teams spawning in the safest location anywhere on a
map – provides for safer spawning above all else. The intention is to
allow players to spawn as far from the enemy as possible. For example,
if blue team overruns red team’s base, then red team would spawn at blue
team’s base. This approach simply makes spawning safer.

But a side affect of Dynamic Spawning, especially for Slayer, is the
counter intuitive rewarding of the team that is being overrun. Out
skilled by the blue team (for example), the red team will be pushed back
against their end of the map until suddenly they begin to spawn behind
the blue team. The spawn engine suddenly begins to reward the red team
with the ability to flank the blue team from behind. This reward is
counter intuitive, as it rewards the less skilled team and penalizes the
more skilled team for being aggressive.

The consequences are severe for the blue team. They can feel
pressured not to overrun the red team’s base – their movement becomes
deprived. This is no small issue that you need to consider.

But there are those who feel that if the teams are so unbalanced that
the red team would wind up spawning behind the blue team, then it would
be better than having the blue team crush the red team. I would
disagree with this, but it is open to opinion on how a Game Type should
play out.

Dynamic Spawning

I used to think that Spawn Traps were bad, bad, bad. But I read a
post somewhere in which someone advocated that Spawn Traps could create a
healthy meta game in some cases. But what was really surprising was
that he went on to say that Spawn Traps in a Dynamic Spawning experience
was where real skill shined. (The discussion revolved around an Arena
style map.)

I can imagine.

It would take real skill to Spawn Trap when a small change in your
position can force a player to spawn behind you. Or in the case of
Reach, just killing them on one end of the map causes them to spawn
behind you on the other end.

The point of this is two fold. Firstly, Spawn Traps, when done
correctly, can be considered a meta game – forging the ability to
prosecute Spawn Traps under very carefully executed procedures is
forging depth into your map. On the other hand, making it easy to
prosecute a spawn trap is ridiculous.

Second, the skill gap is increased if you allow Dynamic Spawning on
the map that allows for Spawn Traps from a single Power Position (for
example) so that a team can drive the trap and then prosecute it through
carefully played out strategies.

Summary

Static Spawning rewards skilled teams that push the other team back
against their base. But this type of Game Play may be considered too
brutal or unbalancing.

Dynamic Spawning rewards higher skilled players on some maps that
allow them to drive and then prosecute Spawn Traps all around them.

You should be aware of the depth each of these adds and decide if
your map should include either to increase the fun and the skill gap on
your map.